


O.J. (Orange Juice)

by Flutterbeam (aretia)



Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-01
Updated: 2015-08-01
Packaged: 2018-04-12 11:26:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4477520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aretia/pseuds/Flutterbeam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Richard is sick, and Jared takes care of him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	O.J. (Orange Juice)

Richard had been up all night and getting about three hours of sleep every day for the past three days. He was desperately behind schedule, and felt like he was getting more behind schedule with each passing day, despite working almost constantly until he passed out at his computer. 

He woke up the next morning in his bed with a headache so blinding and a memory so foggy that he assumed he had been drinking the previous night instead of working, which worried him. He panicked even more when he looked at the time on his phone. He’d slept for nearly 12 hours. He scrambled out of bed and into the kitchen to retrieve his laptop.

The headache was so overpowering that he saw stars in his eyes. He also felt like his head was full of cotton and he couldn’t breathe, and his throat was so itchy that he wanted to reach inside and scratch it, even though that would make him gag up what little was in his churning stomach. Then there was the chill throughout his body despite the flannel pajamas (which he didn’t remember putting on), and the ache in his limbs. This inventory of his body not working as it should would be disturbing enough were it not for Jared looking at him with that concerned expression. Richard was spewing words about the work he was trying to get done, but he wasn’t sure what they meant. Jared was walking toward him with a hand outstretched, and the room started spinning and the floor tilted steeply and movement blurred everything together until it stopped.

Wow, Jared was really tall. Like, he was always tall, but right now he loomed over him like a giant.

Oh. That was because Richard was lying on the floor. He was so dizzy that he had not only fallen on the floor but failed to notice it.

Jared knelt beside him. “It’s probably the lack of sleep that got you sick,” he said. He laid a cool hand on Richard’s forehead and it felt so good. He pulled it away and his face became even more distraught. Richard wished he would stop looking at him with those worried eyes, because the last thing he wanted was for Jared to be worried. 

“It’s okay. I’ll be fine. I need to get work done, though. There’s no time to sleep,” Richard rasped.

“You’ll be more productive once you rest and get better,” Jared asserted. His hands slid under Richard’s body, his right arm behind his shoulder blades, his left arm supporting his knees, and lifted him up and carried him back to his room. This was probably how he’d gotten from the table to his bed last night, though he wished he could remember how nice it was. Jared’s slender arms were surprisingly strong and surprisingly comfortable. Richard nuzzled his head against Jared’s shoulder.

He laid Richard down gently in the bed and draped the covers over him. He leaned down and kissed his forehead. “I want to make you feel better. Is there anything I can get you?”

“Um… my laptop,” Richard said. Jared left the room and came back in a couple of minutes with the laptop. Richard propped himself up against the pillows and took it from him. In Jared’s other hand was a glass of orange juice, which he set on the nightstand. Richard picked it up and took a sip. “Heh, orange juice. O. J. Like your nickname.” Wow, had he actually said that out loud? He really was sick. 

But Jared let out a genuine laugh and blushed. “I just brought orange juice because vitamin C helps the immune system fight off colds. But I suppose that is an amusing coincidence.”

After that, he didn’t even have to ask. Things just appeared in his room. He sniffled, and a box of tissues showed up on the nightstand. He coughed, and there was a cup of chamomile tea with honey and some throat lozenges. When he shivered and said he was cold, Jared brought a pile of blankets and gently tucked him in, accompanied by more forehead kisses. He had given up actually working on his laptop. Instead he watched funny Youtube videos while he waited for Jared to come back from his various ventures around the rest of the house, and enjoyed Jared’s presence while he was there. Richard still felt unwell, but he didn’t feel miserable at all. He felt blissful in Jared’s care.

Later, the fever went in the opposite direction and he threw off the blankets and took off his shirt. He didn’t account for the effect that might have. Jared blushed and ran out of the room, and returned with a cold, moist washcloth in his hands. He sat down on the side of the bed and pressed the cloth to Richard’s forehead, which instantly soothed him. “Thank you, Jared,” he murmured. He closed his eyes and felt the weight of sleepiness sink into him. 

His heart rate picked back up when he felt Jared’s fingers grazing up and down his bare chest. Jared’s lips pressed against his neck and collarbone. Jared’s arm wrapped tight around his shoulders, and his other hand rested on his hip. Richard daydreamed about how he wanted to react to what Jared was doing, but his body wouldn’t respond. He lifted his hand and it brushed limply against Jared’s chest, now also shirtless, before it fell to the bed again. He just felt so sore and tired.

“Jared, this is, um, nice, but I don’t have the energy to do anything right now. I just want to sleep. Is that okay?”

“Oh. Sorry. Yeah. Do you mean with me or…” Richard nodded. “Okay. I’m sorry, I should have asked.” Amid the wave of apologies, Jared slid down on the bed and pulled Richard on top of him so that his head was resting on his chest. He folded his arms over Richard and ran his hands up and down his back, first lightly, then kneading into the skin. Richard sighed contentedly. If being sick meant a rare chance to relax with Jared, the sore throat and fever were well worth it. He absentmindedly traced circles on Jared’s chest with his finger while he listened to the steady beat of his heart. Jared’s hands moved up into Richard’s hair; he enjoyed the feeling of stroking the soft curly locks as much as Richard enjoyed the head massage. As Richard dozed off, he planted a kiss on Jared’s chest, then floated away into fever dreams.

 

He woke up shivering. He nudged Jared’s chin with the top of his head. 

Jared snorted and woke up. “Hm?”

“Jared, I’m cold again,” he complained.

“You still feel hot to me,” Jared remarked. “I think I already got all the blankets, but I’ll go see if I can find some more…” He moved to get up.

“No,” Richard said. “Can you just stay here and cuddle with me?” He was embarrassed that he had to ask; Jared had an almost perfect track record of reading his mind today. 

Jared’s face lit up. “Of course.” He leaned forward and pulled the blankets back up over the two of them. Then he settled back into a position with his arms around Richard. 

“This is so nice that you’re doing all this for me. If I were you I’d be worried about getting myself sick,” Richard chuckled.

“Oh, it’s the least I could do,” Jared said. His shoulders tensed. “Given that I think I was the one who got you sick.” 

“What?” Richard asked.

“I’m so sorry, Richard,” Jared whimpered. “I was sick last week. I did everything I could to keep you from getting sick. I quarantined myself, I slept on the couch, I didn’t touch you at all… but you still caught it somehow. I’m sorry.”

Richard had noticed his boyfriend’s weird behavior, and assumed that he was mad at him for some obscure reason that he didn’t want to broach in case he made it worse. The real reason was so trivial it made him laugh. “Jared, you don’t have to do all that for me.” It spoke to Richard’s poor health and immune system that the same virus that had completely incapacitated him, Jared was able to hide. Then again, that meant he’d had to deal with it all by himself, like a real adult, then get better and pamper Richard like a baby. Guilt crept into Richard’s brain like it always did. “Jared, you didn’t have anyone to take care of you.”

“It’s okay. I never did.” Jared smiled, the earnest smile that always accompanied grim references to his childhood.

That was so endearing and pathetic that Richard propped himself up on his arms and kissed Jared. Both his hands were clasped around Jared’s face, fingers laced behind his ears, pulling him into a deep kiss that he’d been deprived of for a week. He collapsed on top of him so that their faces were pressed side to side. He whispered in Jared’s ear, “You should tell me next time. I wanna take care of you, too.” His voice was noncommittal, doubtful, a promise he couldn’t keep. He knew he would be afraid of getting sick. If he were to even imagine doing the things with a sick Jared that Jared had done today, it would be in a hazmat suit. He regretted that he didn’t have Jared’s trust and that he didn’t earn it. Even though Richard and Jared were usually mentally in sync, what was left unsaid could break the harmony.

Jared tuned in to his doubts and said, “I know you don’t want to get sick. It’s okay. I’m sort of happy things worked out this way, with me getting sick first, I mean. Taking care of you makes me happy.”

Richard loved Jared’s boundless optimism, the way he could take a bad situation like a contagious cold and make it into something they could both be happy about. He kissed him on the cheek. “I really appreciate it,” Richard said. Jared turned his face and their lips met again.

“At the same time, it pains me to see you sacrifice your physical health for your work, Richard. I wish you would take better care of yourself.”

Jared’s concerned, pleading eyes still made him feel uneasy, because he didn’t want to make Jared worry about him. But the worry came from the same place as the attentive care that had kept him comfortable today. It was in Jared’s nature to care and to worry, and Richard had seen how easy his life could be if he didn’t resist it, just laid back and let Jared do what he did best. Here he had an opportunity to make Jared’s life easier in return. “Okay. Sure. I can do that. For you.” 

“For you, too,” Jared added. “But I’ll always be here to help you.” Richard smiled as Jared kissed his forehead again. With Jared’s help, he would probably get better quickly enough to finish his project. But he wouldn’t mind having a few more sick days like this.


End file.
